ACs, refrigerators may get more expensive

Nov 14, 2012, 07.19AM ISTTNN[ Nitin Sethi ]

The cost of air-conditioners and refrigerators could go up considerably starting next summer.

NEW DELHI: The cost of air-conditioners and refrigerators could go up considerably starting next summer if the US and other rich countries force a decision at the UN climate talks in November at Doha, to order a global ban on existing refrigerant gases and replace them with costly though relatively more climate-friendly alternatives.

One of the alternatives being proposed is produced jointly by DuPont and Honeywell, two US-based multinationals, and the other by Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited. A decision to this effect could bring windfall profits to the companies holding the patents at the cost of consumers regardless of their paying capacity.

The move comes with the developed countries, with the US in the lead, pushing that short-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs) be reduced immediately. Shortlived GHGs do not last long when released in the atmosphere but several of them have an intense effect on the climate before they disintegrate. The refrigerant being used at the moment in India and to be phased out starting next year —HCFC 22—is one such gas.

Another UN convention, this one to close the hole in the ozone layer, has already mandated that the industry shift away from HCFC22 starting 2013 and phase it out by 2030. Indian industry is shifting to HFC410A — a less harmful gas . But now, the developed world has stepped up pressure to demand that all countries transit to newly found, much costlier but greener alternatives.

But with only a clutch of companies owning these new gases, India and other developing countries could be forced to pay for the expensive alternatives with the US and other rich countries making it clear that they will not facilitate the transfer of technology to poor countries. The new alternatives, government experts believe, could cost 15 times the refrigerant gas India is now transiting to. India and other developing countries have consistently raised concern about rich countries using climate change as a tool to enhance business and not easing the IPR regime to facilitate transfer of clean technologies.

In contrast, at the negotiations, the rich countries have tried to put the issue of historical responsibility and consequent transfer of technology and finances on the backburner. In recent years, they have also used the excuse of a recession in the West to shirk their responsibility on these fronts.